| CD REVIEW The Drowning |
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Band : The Drowning When two years ago I made my acqaintance with this fine British Death/ Doom band from Cardiff in South Wales, I could not help myself from giving their debut full-length When The Light Was Taken From Us a perfect rating (review posted 1/10/2008, and still available for your factfinding needs). Apparently I wasn't the only music journalist who saw things that way, because specialised reviewers from magazines all over the world were giving the album top points. Apparently the band's unique blend of influences taken from the early '90s Brit Doom scene (led by such wonderful acts as Anathema, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, to name but a few), and other cult bands (such as Celtic Frost, Primordial, The Blood Divine, Funeral, Morgion, Bethlehem, and Deinonychus) had struck a chord, and really there was no reason why the nice melancholic dark Metal, interlaced with great Ambient-like and atmospheric keyboard passages and the occasional acoustic guitar would not! The album opened opportunities for the band to tour the UK with the likes of My Silent Wake, The Prophecy, and Centurion's Ghost, among others, playing many headliners in their native Wales. During a short break in their live schedule, the band wrote and recorded the material for their sophomore outing, a process which was finished by early June this year. The 9 tracks we can now listen to as a result of those efforts, have apparently been influenced musically from the sheer power that comes from bringing your material in a live setting for a continued length of time, because the overall mood on the new album is far heavier! Among the changes made, the frontman now sees himself frequently backed by one of the other guys with a somewhat Blackened voice. Dropped for the most part, is the use of keyboards which was so important for the Ambient and Atmospheric passages on the debut. You will however find some keyboards (both atmospheric and piano-like) in the opening tunes (and for a few short bits within the song – a short piano line here, the sound of rain and upcoming storm there) of "In The Fields Of Solace" (a 12:55 long opus dealing with stuff from World War One; and with "Flowers For The Fallen" you'll find a second song on this album dealing with that theme)...and I have this faint impression that keyboards are actually being "played"...rather like some note is being held for a long time, see?, with the occasional change of note...throughout the song. A similar feeling creeped upon me...and was then confirmed, when listening to the album's shortest track "Forever Fall".On renewed listening sessions, I have to admit that a faint keyboard line can be heard underneath much of the album, really)! I suppose the guys have decided to take a more honest stance towards their music, wanting to reproduce the studio sound in live settings without actually having to recruit an additional keyboardist for those moments when the guitarists (whom have now both been credited for handling the keyboards!) have a dual part to play. Because these rather simple atmospherics can easily be brought with foot pedal keyboards, eh? At least, during the short instrumental "The Ashen Light" (which is really an intro to the ensuing "A Solitary White Ship") the use of a keyboard (tuned to the sound of a cello) is clear enough. As mentioned earlier, the album is far heavier overall (both musically and vocally – and you'll only find the use of "normal" voice for a short while during "In Sufference" this time around), and even if the use of keyboards persists, the use of calmer passages (through Ambient/ atmospherics keyboards of acoustic guitar) is now less prominent. Track lengths have changed somewhat too: where on the debut a song/ tracks would be somewhere in between 7:18 and 8:55, we now get a few deviations towards both ends of length (1:41 side for instrumental intro "The Ashen Light", and 4:54 for "Forever Fall" on the short side; 10:41 and 12:55 for "Flowers For The Fallen" and "In The Fields Of Solace" respectively on the longer side – and as it so happens, those are the tracks about WWI...coincidence?). In other words: the band has evolved somewhat. Does this mean I feel any less about This Bleak Descent, when compared to the 2006 album? Not really, because the essence still remains somehow! Wanna check the album out before deciding to go out and buy it? Listen to "Soulless Harvest" (for which the band would be posting a video any time now) and "Flowers For The Fallen" at myspace.com/thedrowningUK (for older material, surf to the band's website thedrowning.com, where you'll still find mp3 files for their complete 2004 demo and the 2006 album). If that ain't enough, you'll have to drop in at your local record store and ask for an additional listening session. The label being British, promo copies were sent out to UK press and media somewhat earlier (I think!) and a very nice response already came from Overflow Radio, who made This Bleak Descent their "CD Of The Week" in early September (for a full review, go to starshipoverflow.com). Personally, I grant the album a longer longevity than that, and am herewith chucking it into my "Best Albums Of 2008"-list (and if you wonder why I rated the 2006 album a perfect 100, and this slightly less, let it be known that such webzine policy is simply pushed onto me...and sometimes even I comply). 98/100 Tony. |